We begin the Erie Canal

(Note: you can double click on photos to enlarge)

July 19 & 20 Lockport, NY

The beginning of the Erie Canal!

Now that we've turned our sailboat into a power boat (evil grin from the first mate), we're ready to travel down the 300+ miles of the Erie Canal to get to the Hudson River.

I was a bit nervous about going through a canal lock, but luckily, we had a good first impression.

As we left Buffalo, we had to go through a small lock in the Black Rock Canal in downtown Buffalo.

We pulled into the lock and the doors shut behind us.

This is looking forward to the other doors. The water drains out like a big old bathtub, taking us down about 5 feet. The doors open and we pulled away. No big deal, right?

As we entered the Erie Canal system, we traveld quite a ways before we came to any of their locks. It was absolutely beautiful! Very peaceful...like floating down a lazy river that's about 11 - 13 feet deep. No sails to fuss with, no navigation to worry about...just simple motoring. Ahhhh, this power boat gal is lovin' it!

Looking down the canal.

Beautiful homes along the water...I've attached just a few for you to see.

This is Tonawanda...it was the first town we came across. We'd plan to stop there, but wouldn't you know it was their annual Canal Days festival. Looked like a great party! (And you know how we hate to miss a good party.) But there were no tie ups available and there was no way I wanted to try to raft off another boat with this huge mast hanging off the front and back of our boat! Sadly, we moved on...waving to the revelers. There will be plenty of other parties along the way.

Then we came to the next town...Lockport. This is where the first locks are located. So, here comes a short history lesson:

"Proclaimed by General Marquis de Lafayette in the 1800's as one of the 'greatest engineering feats in the world', Lockport's famous double locks are a must see for any visitor to the Canal System. Side by side, you can view the historic 'Flight of 5' historic locks on one side and the current operational locks on the other." The original 'Flight of 5' locks were built in the 1840's. It is now a tier of 5 spillways (see photo below). The current set of two locks was built in 1912 - 1914 and drops boats 25 feet each for a total of a 50 foot drop. It uses the same gears and pumps as the original design. And, get this, it's all powered by a 7 hp motor. Imagine! It really is something to see.

The lock operator allowed us to tie up right next to the lock for free. We stayed there two nights. It was convenient to everything in town. When they filled the locks, it created quite a current, so we had to be careful about how we tied up the boat to keep the mast from banging into the metal bars that surrounded the lock area (you can see them in yellow).

This is a front view at water level of our docking spot. You can see the series of bridges behind the boat. We had lots of rain and in the evening mist you could squint and almost think you were in London, England.

Those of you who know how graceful I am (NOT) can imagine the fun I had stepping up from the boat to the ledge then climbing under the bars to get on the concrete landing. Luckily I never fell....but believe me, I was holding on TIGHT.

Here's a 30 foot power boat in the first lock, 25 feet down (looks like a toy, huh?) You can see the swirling water as the lock is being filled up with water from the upper level lock.

This is the view the power boat would have of the doors in front of him before the lock is filled. Gulp! Gets your attention, believe me.

This is a view of the original Flight of 5 locks that took boats through in the 1800's. As I mentioned above, what used to take 5 locks is now done in two. It's amazing. The 5 locks were all formed by hand cut stone blocks. And they still look great today.


Your lovely host and hostess...standing in the rain above the first lock.

We got through the locks just fine. They have long lines running from the top of the lock to the bottom. We put a line through them and just adjusted as we went down. The first lock was a bit scary because we were holding on too close to the middle of the boat and the bow and stern kept moving with the current. I was scared to death one of the ends of the mast would bang into the wall. We did much better on the second one by spacing out our hand holds a bit further to keep the boat more steady. And yes, the walls are very slimey, so you would want to wear rubber gloves if possible.